Friendly Stray

When the white stray dog first showed up on our property, out in the field or by the front gate, I assumed it was one of our white dogs - out roaming because the goat fencing is down. From a distance it looked the same color and size.

But then one day I thought I was going a little crazy because I thought I saw THREE white dogs. And with closer inspection, found that, yes, it was a third white dog. Male.

Anytime we have an extra dog around the property it causes chaos. Even when our own two white goat dogs come near the house (which they do frequently when they get out) - or when the house dogs get near the goat dogs. But when it's a strange new dog, they all go crazy. Our dogs will venture well out of their normal areas to investigate. The constant barking gets annoying. They are protective.

Stray dogs are fairly common where we live. People are constantly dumping dogs out here. I would guess we get one every month or two that we need to deal with. Some are nice, some aren't so nice. After our experience with the pack of wild dogs and our chickens, we are even more cautious. 

But this dog was friendly, too friendly. He was passive and was never provoked by our dogs, even when all four could gang up on him. When you said sit, he'd sit and roll over waiting to be petted. He liked to water our plants frequently when he was around the house. He liked to eat and always seemed hungry, eating the cat food on the back porch or out at the workshop. He liked our house especially at meal times. He liked to sniff. He liked our girls.

I should say at this point that our female goat dogs were never meant to roam the countryside. They were always meant to be in a fenced area to protect the goats, and thus would be protected from advances from male suitors. 

But he was your typical unwanted guest. Friendly but unwanted after a few days. Just one too many mouths to feed. We can't keep all the strays that come our way.

I contacted our local animal shelter after it appeared he was here to stay and not just passing through. Unfortunately, it is the only one in our county and is usually full. So I was put on the waiting list. After about two weeks they finally phoned to say they had room. Then it took us a couple of days to catch him before we could load him up and take him into town. We get charged $25 by the shelter. We view it as a donation.

We should know by the end of the month if we're going to have puppies.